Droubble: One Being's Trash...

One Being’s Trash...

The Zzdagx had been almost as poor stewards of their planet, Zzd, as we had been on Earth. Overpopulation and poor management of resources had thrown the ecosystem of Zzd drastically out of balance. Overextraction had reduced the oceans’ levels of dioxins and mercury, necessary to the physiological processes of life evolved on Zzd, to almost nothing. Industrial processes had cooled the planet’s average temperature, and had left a dangerous caul of ozone in the upper atmosphere, blocking out necessary radiation. There were mass extinctions, terrible wars over remaining resources, famines of historical proportion. But when things were at their most dire, our species chanced to meet.

Serendipity on our side, a deal was easily brokered with the Zzsagx – a straight across trade, world for world. Great arks ferried back and forth, transferring the populace of Zzd to Earth, and vise versa. Long extinct flora and fauna were reconstructed from genetic databases, populating new, more hospitable ecosystems.

Naysayers on both sides expressed fears and apprehensions. This easy solution, they claim, has left us to learn nothing, and history, they fear, will repeat. But who cares, I say? So long as the Zzdagx haven’t learned, either, we can always trade back.